West Bloomfield Native Turns Love of Form, Color Into Glass Business

West Bloomfield native Kevin Carlin discovered glass blowing while visiting Hawaii after he graduated from high school and built his love for the art into a business.

"I've always been into form and color, and the ability to make a product by hand," said Carlin, who in 2010 founded Motor City Glass Works in Sylvan Lake. 

The 35-year-old Brother Rice alum said he wasn't sure what he really wanted to do after high school, so he took some classes at Oakland Community College. A sculpture class got him interested in three-dimensional forms. His trip to Maui and exposure to glass blowing led him to take some courses at the University of Hawaii.

"That's where I started doing ceramics and really kind of focused more on the vessel," he said. 

While home for the summer, he learned that Detroit's College for Creative Studies offered greater access to studio space. "It was a better opportunity to learn more and play more," he said, adding he worked as an assistant for several artists and in production glass blowing. 

Carlin also spent some time as a "kind of a ski bum", working at a ski resort in Utah and blowing glass part-time at a studio in Salt Lake City. When he moved back to Michigan, he found a house in Keego Harbor and a light industrial space in nearby Sylvan Lake, where he built all of his "hot shop" equipment from scratch.

Over time, Motor City Glass Works has become known for its barware – unique, hand-blown glasses that sell at a "friendlier price point", Carlin said. 

In addition, he has created a new collection of limited edition, one-off pieces that pay tribute to the beauty of nature with a rainbow assortment of oversized and smaller glass sculptures in spherical and conical shapes, atop hand-forged copper pipes to fit into gardens and landscapes. 

Look for Motor City Glass Works products at the Royal Oak Clay, Glass and Metal show, June 8-9, and the Orchard Lake Fine Art Show July 26-28. Learn more and see samples of Carlin's work at motorcityglassworks.com.